Declarations from Erling Haaland of a lifelong love for Manchester City can be made as much as he wants, but we have seen the Premier League-dream quotes, the shorts and the words in Stuart Dallas’s ear. The 21-year-old’s transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Etihad Stadium was confirmed this morning and, of course, the Premier League champions have raided the family photo albums for young Haaland in City blue.
You would though, wouldn’t you? It’s an easy connection to make and it sells the move beautifully to the City fan base.
It’s not every window a team is able to show their new signing in the club’s colours as an infant. If Haaland says he’s a City fan, who are we to doubt him? Only he can say who he has supported.
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The City angle can be leaned on by Haaland as much as he wants, but his fondness for Leeds United is irrefutable. Haaland will finally get that homecoming he is sure to crave.
The Leeds-born striker may not be in the white his fellow Leodensians might have wished, but as someone with a tight emotional connection to his father’s career, Elland Road is sure to be on Haaland’s bucket list. We are talking about a stadium his old man actually played in too.
The Etihad, for all of its glass tunnels and pitchside prawn sandwiches, cannot offer that same connection to Alfie. When the fixtures drop on Thursday morning, the Norway international will be looking out for Leeds away in the first instance.
Before he departed the safety and security of Norway on his rise to the top of European football, Haaland told Aftenposten: “I want to be the best possible. The dream is to win the Premier League with Leeds.
“In addition, the goal is to become a better player than my dad was. I hope to get more caps than he did.”
A more mature, media-savvy Haaland might now swipe away those quotes as tongue-in-cheek, throwaway remarks, but they undeniably offer an insight into how strongly he feels about his hometown club. Last summer, there was a clip of him wearing United shorts which looked every inch his dad’s from the late 1990s.
Then there was the pursuit of Dallas for his Northern Ireland shirt with a ‘marching on together’ in his ear. It may not be under the circumstances the Elland Road faithful would have hoped for, but Haaland is going to get the homecoming he dreamed of.
It’s another narrative for the Leeds faithful to look out for on Thursday morning and how one of their own is received on that day in 2022/23 is going to be worth a watch. Jesse Marsch will say hello too.
